Just because his arm got twisted and he was interrogated a bit, he ended his own life right there on the spot?
He didn’t seem like a simple thief. A professional assassin, or perhaps a trained organization member.
Lee Kanghyun’s mind raced.
Was he targeting me directly?
No. The skill level was too low for that. And he’d been flustered to see him inside the house. If assassination wasn’t the goal, then why did he break in?
Lost in thought, he suddenly looked down at his own palm.
A life that had been moving and screaming just moments ago had collapsed in an instant within this hand.
That unpleasant, horrifying sensation remained like an afterimage, refusing to fade.
He’s dead.
Too easily. Too futilely.
“Urk…”
His breath suddenly caught in his throat. His chest felt tight.
Lee Kanghyun rubbed the hand that had gripped the man with his other hand. He rubbed until the skin turned red, but that terrible sensation wouldn’t disappear. A chill spread from his fingertips throughout his entire body.
His vision spun. The world seemed to hum and grow more distant. He couldn’t hear the sharp sound of wind coming through the broken window, nor his own ragged breathing.
He simply stood frozen, staring blankly at the corpse at his feet.
How much time had passed? The front door opened and someone entered.
“Lee Kanghyun, you didn’t eat dinner either, right? I bought sushi on the way, so let’s eat togeth—”
Kang Yujun’s steps stopped as he entered carrying a plastic bag. He looked in sequence at the broken window, the wrecked living room, and the corpse in a black mask sprawled on the floor.
And then he saw Lee Kanghyun standing in front of it all, looking dazed with a bloodless face.
Taking in all of this, the bag of sushi dropped from Kang Yujun’s hand with a thud.
Kang Yujun closed the distance in an instant. He grabbed Lee Kanghyun’s trembling shoulders firmly.
“Lee Kanghyun.”
“……”
There was no response. Lee Kanghyun’s eyes were shaking, unfocused.
“Snap out of it. Lee Kanghyun!”
Kang Yujun grabbed Lee Kanghyun by the collar and shook him roughly.
“He’s dead.”
Lee Kanghyun opened his mouth blankly. His voice came out cracked. He raised his hand to point at the corpse on the floor. His fingertips were trembling finely. He didn’t seem to even register that Kang Yujun was in front of him.
“I didn’t kill him. He just… took a pill on his own and… just died.”
Lee Kanghyun rambled incoherently, muttering as if making excuses. His breathing was so labored that his words kept breaking off.
“I only broke his arm. I just asked who he was… Why did he die? Why…?”
“I know. I understand. It’s not your fault.”
Kang Yujun gripped Lee Kanghyun’s trembling hands tightly and looked him straight in the eyes.
“Breathe. Slowly. Breathe in… and out.”
“Huu…”
“It’s okay. Calm down. This is nothing.”
Kang Yujun’s low, steady voice pierced into Lee Kanghyun’s ears.
“Haa… haa…”
Only then did Lee Kanghyun’s breathing burst out roughly as his sense of reality returned.
Kang Yujun was in front of him. Kang Yujun looking at him with worried eyes.
“You startled me…”
His voice cracked uncontrollably. He confirmed Kang Yujun through his blurry vision.
“When did you get here?”
He tried to ask as nonchalantly as possible, but the end broke pathetically.
“Just now.”
Kang Yujun let out a small sigh and pulled Lee Kanghyun into his arms.
Surprised by the sudden embrace, Lee Kanghyun twisted his body and struggled. Kang Yujun loosened his arms slightly but didn’t let go.
“What are you doing?”
Lee Kanghyun resisted a few more times before unconsciously relaxing. Kang Yujun’s body heat gave him a sense of stability. Something so trivial became a comfort.
“Make some noise when you arrive. And stop barging into my house.”
Lee Kanghyun scolded him for no reason. But unlike his usual sharp tone, there was no strength in his voice at all. It was closer to whining than scolding.
“Okay. I’m sorry. I come too often.”
They stayed like that for a while. But they couldn’t cling to each other like this forever. It was embarrassing. He was a Hunter too, yet here he was trembling just because he’d seen one person die.
“Hey. Let go now. I can’t breathe. What the hell are you doing, it’s disgusting.”
Kang Yujun slowly released his arms, but his gaze remained fixed on Lee Kanghyun.
“What are we going to do about that?”
Lee Kanghyun pointed at the corpse, pretending to be unaffected. Now that he’d regained his composure, it belatedly occurred to him that they’d have to deal with it.
“Don’t worry about it. I called the Association people.”
Kang Yujun answered calmly.
“Shouldn’t we call the police?”
“It gets complicated if the police come. Hunter-related incidents are cleaner when handled by the Association’s dedicated team. I’ll take care of it, so you just forget about it.”
Kang Yujun’s eyes turned cold for a moment.
“What happened?”
Lee Kanghyun briefly explained the sequence of events.
“—So I subdued him and tried to interrogate him. But the moment he was caught, he immediately took a pill and died.”
“A pill?”
“Yeah. Like a capsule he had hidden in his mouth. He died the moment he bit down. Without hesitation.”
Kang Yujun’s brow furrowed.
Of course he wouldn’t be an ordinary petty thief, but to immediately commit suicide was strange no matter how you looked at it.
Ding-dong.
A moment later, the doorbell rang. The Association people seemed to have already arrived.
“I’ll get it.”
Kang Yujun turned and headed for the entrance.
The Association staff filed in. They moved busily.
He could hear the sounds of them covering the corpse, preserving the scene, and cleaning up the broken glass shards.
Lee Kanghyun was buried deep in the sofa, watching all of it blankly.
An investigator in a suit approached.
“Hunter Lee Kanghyun. I’d like to ask you a few questions about the circumstances of the incident.”
The investigator pulled out a notepad and asked in a businesslike tone. Lee Kanghyun just nodded without looking at him.
It was exhausting. He just wanted to pull the covers over his head and sleep.
“What time exactly did you discover the intruder?”
“I don’t know. I woke up from sleep and came out.”
“Was the intruder carrying a weapon?”
“He had a dagger. The one rolling around on the floor over there.”
Lee Kanghyun pointed at the floor. The investigator frowned and wrote something down.
The questions continued. How he subdued him, what conversation they had, what the intruder’s appearance was like.
“So, you’re saying Hunter Lee Kanghyun twisted the intruder’s arm to subdue him, and immediately after that, the intruder committed suicide?”
“Yes. That’s what I’m saying. How many times do I have to tell you?”
Annoyance seeped into Lee Kanghyun’s voice. The investigator tapped his notepad with the tip of his pen while staring at Lee Kanghyun intently. It was a suspicious look. Lee Kanghyun was famous for his poor behavior, after all.
“You didn’t use excessive force, did you? The possibility that the intruder died due to Hunter Lee Kanghyun’s failure to control his strength…”
Lee Kanghyun’s eyebrow twitched. Excessive force? Failure to control his strength? That he killed him?
Anger suddenly surged up. A mix of injustice and fury rose to his throat. But he didn’t let it out. Even arguing was too bothersome.
As Lee Kanghyun pressed his lips shut and fell silent, the investigator’s expression hardened further. Just as the atmosphere was about to turn hostile, Kang Yujun intervened.
“That’s enough. Hunter Lee Kanghyun is very shaken. It would be better to conduct the investigation another time.”
Kang Yujun stepped between Lee Kanghyun and the investigator, looking down at him as he spoke coldly.
“But Hunter Kang Yujun. We need to understand the exact circumstances of the incident.”
“Hunter Lee Kanghyun is the victim. If you continue to be rude, I’ll file a complaint directly with the Association President.”
At Kang Yujun’s firm attitude, the investigator backed down. He cleared his throat and put away his notepad.
“Understood. Then I’ll contact you again later. Please cooperate when that time comes.”
The investigator withdrew, and the staff loaded the corpse and left. Soon the front door closed and silence once again enveloped the house.
Lee Kanghyun tried to turn his thoughts elsewhere. Being an S-rank Hunter, he wasn’t arrested on the spot as a murder suspect. Isn’t this too much of a privilege?
The wind coming through the broken window was cold.
“Are you okay?”
Kang Yujun asked carefully. Lee Kanghyun nodded. The truth was he wasn’t okay. His stomach still churned. But he didn’t want to show weakness to Kang Yujun.
“Yeah. I’m hungry. Give me the sushi.”
Lee Kanghyun said curtly.
“Okay. Let’s eat. You need to eat and recover your energy.”
Kang Yujun picked up the bag of sushi from the floor and placed it on the dining table. Fortunately, the packaging hadn’t been torn open.
He tore open the chopsticks and handed them to Lee Kanghyun. Lee Kanghyun took the chopsticks, picked up a piece of sushi, and put it in his mouth. He couldn’t taste anything. He just chewed and swallowed.
“Is it good?”
“It’s edible.”
It was a lie. It felt like chewing grains of sand.
But Lee Kanghyun forced the sushi down. Because he hated that Kang Yujun was worried. Because he hated being seen as pitiful.
